Is Background Music Distracting?

Abstract

Many students listen to music while studying, but are these conditions optimal for cognitive performance? Previous research has revealed inconsistent findings because the effect depends on several factors (e.g., type of music, type of task, individual differences). The current study examined the effect of background music on reading comprehension, a task that is most similar to studying, to explore three questions: 1) Is music with lyrics more distracting than instrumental music? 2) Does the emotional valence of the music (e.g., happy, sad) contribute to distraction? and 3) Do individual differences in personality, working memory, and empathy influence distractibility? Although several studies have examined the effect of lyrics and extraversion, few have explored our other factors of interest. We first conducted a pilot study (N = 60) to select popular songs that were unambiguously happy or sad, and to select three reading comprehension tasks that were equally difficult. In the main experiment, each participant completed reading comprehension tasks in three conditions, 1) while listening to original pop songs with lyrics, 2) while listening to instrumental versions of different pop songs, and 3) while sitting in silence. Half of the participants listened to happy-sounding music in the music conditions, and half listened to sad-sounding music. Participants then completed self-report measures of personality, working memory, and empathy. We expect that individuals who are least distracted by background music will be those who 1) are high in extraversion, 2) are low in empathy, and 3) have high working memory capacities.

Discipline: Psychology Honours

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Kathleen  Corrigall